Editorial: California lawmakers flunk a DMV test

Appointment number displayed over the front door of the State Department of Motor Vehicles on Thursday, July 5, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. YoGov, an Oakland company that promises expedited appointments at field offices at a time when lines at the DMV are getting longer and appointments harder to schedule.

Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

Sacramento lawmakers aren’t heeding the message about the public’s fury over punishing waits and poor service at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The legislators are good at scolding DMV leaders and spending more money to ease bottlenecks, but they won’t commit to an audit to plumb the agency’s woes.

In two hearings this week, legislative members came down hard on the agency, which is enduring a meltdown brought on by hours-long wait times and worsened by extra duties connected with new Real ID cards. A vaunted appointment system stretches for months, and extra staff thrown into the mix aren’t denting the problem.

If the DMV is once again the outfit everyone loves to hate, state politicos don’t seem to care. The Legislature is approving an extra $16.6 million for 230 staffers to handle the crowds. But an audit that would profile the department’s lackluster performance was blocked.

A combo play including Gov. Jerry Brown and three Democratic state senators killed the idea of fiscal inquiry brought up by Republicans looking for answers on a brewing political storm. This partisan alignment was one aspect and so was another: the three senators didn’t even vote, they just sat on their hands. By declining to vote, they denied a joint Senate and Assembly panel the majority needed for an audit. If they feel strongly about an issue, they should vote, not walk away from a recorded decision.

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The three were Jim Beall from San Jose, Ben Allen of Santa Monica and Ricardo Lara, who represents Bell Gardens in Los Angeles County. Lara is running for state Insurance Commissioner, an office that would require him to routinely make tough decisions. We have endorsed his opponent, former Commissioner Steve Poizner, an independent.

An audit can be a fearsome but useful tool. The job would be handled by state Auditor Elaine Howle, an independent set of eyes who works outside of the political boundary lines. As lawmakers well know, these outside looks dependably turn up problems that can be put at the feet of state leaders. Lawmakers got a whiff of this problem in a recent audit of employee misbehavior: a DMV worker who slept three hours a day on the job for four years while supervisors did little.

Shame on legislators for shielding a wayward agency. The DMV collects hefty vehicle registration and license fees, sums that are harder to justify as lines lengthen and appointment times grow scarce. Also, examining the agency’s shortcomings might have repercussions if angry voters took out their frustrations by favoring a gas tax repeal in November.

“Instead of an audit, we’re getting politics,” noted Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon. She attended two days of DMV hearings, carrying 120 constituent complaints. Denying the audit in favor of letting the agency handle its problems alone is “unacceptable,’’ she said.

Baker is right. Californians have had it with waiting at the DMV, and are fed up with waiting for our elected representatives to do something about it.

This commentary is from The Chronicle’s editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.